if you are of age to be making money you are old enough to know mcdonalds is **** for you. if you arent, then why are you giving your kids money to buy **** food?

i never got given money as a kid unless i earned it, and theres no fucking way i was gonna waste the 5c i got per dog **** i picked up from the garden on mcdonalds. you know how many dog shits i would have to fondle to buy a fucking 5 dollar combo? 100 shits. and our dogs ate some fucked up stuff. i had to pull plastic bags out of our deerhounds ass on more than one occasion because it was thick and suicidal, and i still only got 5c for that. When I bought anything as a child it had to REALLY be worth it.

what im trying to say is, if you dont want your kids to eat bad food, make them pick up animal **** for money. you learn values.

I never gave my kids money to buy McDonalds (well, Taco Bell a few times). But the problem is that the good stuff is not readily available, even if they were to watch their money carefully. Maybe its different in New Zealand, but here in the U.S. I find that I either have to drive a ways to get organic produce, grass fed beef, etc, or else pay a big premium for it. When I walk into a huge chain supermarket, I'm amazed by the aisles and aisles of food that that I'd never eat. There is definitely a "food culture," at least in my country, and the individual who wants alternatives is going to have to row against a strong current.

The cafeterias in our educational institutions also provide unhealthy food to save money. They subscribe to the "ketchup is a vegetable" view. Its only been relatively recently that our public schools have begun to do away with the soda and junk food machines. When my son attended a state university, he complained that even there the food was awful.

Its a tough battle, because we all have to function within the larger society. If the kids don't get processed poison and sugar to eat at home, they'll get it at school and at the homes of their friends, with no alternatives presented except to go hungry. It is possible to educate them and set an example, but, like my son at the university, they find that they grow up to row hard against the current also.

At the end of the road, there is only one person to blame if your kids are fat. Or possibly two people if your spouse is sabotaging your choices. I am pretty sure that person is not Michael Jordan.

I agree the food in schools and universities and even hospitals is almost always garbage, but that can be resolved rather easily by packing a lunch.

It is an extreme and wrong view to hold the athletes totally responsible, or the corporations, or the government for our high rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease. "Society made me do it" is nonsense, and yes, parents have most of the responsibility. But I still resent the fact that I am put in the position of having to fight against the media, against chain fast food joints, supermarkets, against Kellog's Inc., the FDA with their ridiculous food pyramid, and many others. Maybe its a na´ve view, but there is something wrong with a mass culture that coaxes people in the wrong direction.

McDonalds spends millions of dollars every year paying people who've dedicated their professional lives to figuring out how to convince your kid he absolutely needs a fucking cheeseburger right now.

So you turn off the TV, right? That'll solve the problem, right?

Maybe, if your kid happens to be a complete loser with no friends or social contact outside of your house. Otherwise, you have to also deal with your kids' friends, and hope their parents are equally involved and invested and agree with your personal values.

Marketing doesn't come at you directly, it comes at you culturally. So unless you want to renounce society and become Amish, putting all the responsibility on parents is asinine.

if you are of age to be making money you are old enough to know mcdonalds is **** for you. if you arent, then why are you giving your kids money to buy **** food?

i never got given money as a kid unless i earned it, and theres no fucking way i was gonna waste the 5c i got per dog **** i picked up from the garden on mcdonalds. you know how many dog shits i would have to fondle to buy a fucking 5 dollar combo? 100 shits. and our dogs ate some fucked up stuff. i had to pull plastic bags out of our deerhounds ass on more than one occasion because it was thick and suicidal, and i still only got 5c for that. When I bought anything as a child it had to REALLY be worth it.

what im trying to say is, if you dont want your kids to eat bad food, make them pick up animal **** for money. you learn values.

You are scarred for life, do you pick enough dog **** now to pay for counseling ?

Falling for Judo since 1980

"You are wrong. Why? Because you move like a pregnant yak and talk like a spazzing 'I train UFC' noob." -DCS

"The best part of getting you worked up is your backpack full of irony and lies." -It Is Fake

"Banning BKR is like kicking a Quokka. It's foolishness of the first order." - Raycetpfl

McDonalds spends millions of dollars every year paying people who've dedicated their professional lives to figuring out how to convince your kid he absolutely needs a fucking cheeseburger right now.

So you turn off the TV, right? That'll solve the problem, right?

Maybe, if your kid happens to be a complete loser with no friends or social contact outside of your house. Otherwise, you have to also deal with your kids' friends, and hope their parents are equally involved and invested and agree with your personal values.

Marketing doesn't come at you directly, it comes at you culturally. So unless you want to renounce society and become Amish, putting all the responsibility on parents is asinine.

I agree with you, however, in my experience, turning off the TV (or limiting and controlling what is watched) early in life of my kids helped tremendously. The "friends" issue wasn't so big due to being fairly isolated.

It wasn't so much the bad food my ex and I were worried about, but behavior and especially video games and the Internet. We were/are kind of a special case though, living where we did/do (very rural area).

Falling for Judo since 1980

"You are wrong. Why? Because you move like a pregnant yak and talk like a spazzing 'I train UFC' noob." -DCS

"The best part of getting you worked up is your backpack full of irony and lies." -It Is Fake

"Banning BKR is like kicking a Quokka. It's foolishness of the first order." - Raycetpfl

McDonalds spends millions of dollars every year paying people who've dedicated their professional lives to figuring out how to convince your kid he absolutely needs a fucking cheeseburger right now.

So you turn off the TV, right? That'll solve the problem, right?

Maybe, if your kid happens to be a complete loser with no friends or social contact outside of your house. Otherwise, you have to also deal with your kids' friends, and hope their parents are equally involved and invested and agree with your personal values.

Marketing doesn't come at you directly, it comes at you culturally. So unless you want to renounce society and become Amish, putting all the responsibility on parents is asinine.

I see your point, but even if marketing is a stellar success and convinces my kid that he absolutely needs a cheeseburger right now, I am still not going to get him one. The counter balance to McDonalds spending enough money to sustain a small nation on marketing is still at home. I agree it's hard, but certainly doable.

More importantly, for me, is that there isn't a whole lot I can do about McDonald's marketing. But I can personally make sure my son eats healthy. So I guess I prefer actionable outrage. If he slips a cheeseburger at a friend's house, I don't think a couple of nutritional deviations here and there are going to kill him.

McDonalds spends millions of dollars every year paying people who've dedicated their professional lives to figuring out how to convince your kid he absolutely needs a fucking cheeseburger right now.

So you turn off the TV, right? That'll solve the problem, right?

Maybe, if your kid happens to be a complete loser with no friends or social contact outside of your house. Otherwise, you have to also deal with your kids' friends, and hope their parents are equally involved and invested and agree with your personal values.

Marketing doesn't come at you directly, it comes at you culturally. So unless you want to renounce society and become Amish, putting all the responsibility on parents is asinine.

But, once again, this is not a new problem or a problem limited to junk food.

There are all kinds of things (numbness to violence, misogyny, obsession with celebrity, political biases, etc., etc., etc.) coming out of the media that I don't want getting to my daughter. What's so unique about junk food commercials? Why do they demand a change to the system more than all the other crap? Should I expect everything that I think is bad for my daughter to be taken off the television?

But, once again, this is not a new problem or a problem limited to junk food.

There are all kinds of things (numbness to violence, misogyny, obsession with celebrity, political biases, etc., etc., etc.) coming out of the media that I don't want getting to my daughter. What's so unique about junk food commercials? Why do they demand a change to the system more than all the other crap? Should I expect everything that I think is bad for my daughter to be taken off the television?

The difference is that, in the case of the other things you mention, people remain freer to make their own choices. For instance, with numbness to violence in the movies, you could argue that most movies made today are violent, so choices are limited -- but watching movies isn't an absolute necessity. Eating is a necessity. When the food industry as a whole focuses on the shelf life of foods, the packaging, the profit margin instead of the nutritional content (except when trendy to do so, as in the low-fat stuff), the typical American walks into a grocery store and finds few good choices. Even the produce is sprayed with poison.

To me, the TV marketing of these foods isn't the main problem. Yes, you can turn off the TV, but you still gotta eat something, and that about all you're going to get.

The difference is that, in the case of the other things you mention, people remain freer to make their own choices. For instance, with numbness to violence in the movies, you could argue that most movies made today are violent, so choices are limited -- but watching movies isn't an absolute necessity. Eating is a necessity. When the food industry as a whole focuses on the shelf life of foods, the packaging, the profit margin instead of the nutritional content (except when trendy to do so, as in the low-fat stuff), the typical American walks into a grocery store and finds few good choices. Even the produce is sprayed with poison.

To me, the TV marketing of these foods isn't the main problem. Yes, you can turn off the TV, but you still gotta eat something, and that about all you're going to get.

I think you're talking about a completely separate problem from the one the thread is about. OP's article is about athlete's promoting certain foods, not about the availability of said foods.